Dallas Stars Blog

Lehtonen to start in goal Saturday

Kari Lehtonen will get his first start in a Stars’ uniform Saturday against the Penguins in a noon CT start.

He has a pretty good history against that team. As an Atlanta Thrashers goalie, Lehtonen was 6-2-2 against the Penguins with a 2.53 GAA and .922 save percentage.

He relieved Marty Turco on Thursday and allowed two goals on 16 shots. Coach Marc Crawford said it was good for Lehtonen to at least get his first NHL experience since April 11 of last year. Lehtonen has had two back surgeries in the off-season and was acquired by the Stars in a trade Feb. 9. He had played four games on a conditioning assignment in the minors.

“The good thing about last night was he got plus 35 minutes to see all of the subtleties of all the attention a goalie has to have during a penalty kill _ you can’t simulate that the way game action does. Or the fatigue that sets in when you have to battle in the goal mouth for 30 or 40 seconds, that’s really hard anaerobically for a goalie. So for him to get that intensity was certainly good.”

The practice today had a lot of drills in which the team focused very much on simple plays in transition. Get in hard on the forecheck and then hustle back into defensive position. It was almost like training camp, but it might be what the Stars need after the Olympic Break. Crawford also juggled the lines, and put Steve Ott on the top line in James Neal’s place. The top line has struggled defensively on the road (and in the last two games at home), but Crawford said the shuffling was not directed at that need specifically. He said the only way to resolve the recent defensive woes is to work better and harder as a team.

They make a certain amount of sense when you know that Pittsburgh will come with some very talented lines and that Brad Richards is a minus-19 on the road this season and that each player on the line is minus-4 in the last two games. This gives the Stars better balance defensively.

I’m not sure where Modano fits in, but my guess is Crawford will be juggling a lot no matter what.